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Youth 2000 Weekend in Memphis
By Fr. Dennis | April 14, 2008
This past weekend, the Diocese of Memphis hosted a Youth 2000 retreat event. To be honest, we had hoped for more youth participants, but inviting high school youth to a weekend event during prom season may be fighting an uphill battle. Nevertheless, the 200 or so that were there had a very good experience. The diocese brought in some CFR’s (Capuccin Franciscan Friars of the Renewal) as retreat masters, and they did a great job. More than half of the kids, I would estimate, went to confession over the course of the weekend, and at the end of the retreat, about 15 of them admitted in front of everyone present that they were considering a religious vocation. Also, 2 of the non-Catholic kids present professed an intention to become Catholic.
I was thrilled to be part of the music ministry team for the weekend. Since priestly ordination is fast approaching, I realize that my chances to be involved in music ministry will be changing very quickly, and I jumped at the opportunity to be part of a “Praise -n- Worship” ensemble. Dawn Apang, an alum of the Memphis Youth Ministry scene was in charge of the group, and she did a great job. The organizers from the national Youth 2000 office rated our little group as being among the best they’ve ever had at a weekend event. And since they’ve done over 500 of these weekends, that’s very high praise.
Of course, Jesus Christ was the real minister there this weekend, and many of the kids (and some of the adults) had very powerful, tangible experiences of his love for them.
I sincerely hope our diocese is able to do another event like this soon.
Pictures below!
By the way, I sustained a wicked blood blister on my finger from playing guitar for more hours in one weekend than I’ve played all this last year.
April 15th, 2008 at 1:48 am
As I have often said: take care of evangelization, and the vocations problem will take care of itself.
Can I get an Amen?
(Nice blister by the way…)
April 15th, 2008 at 11:34 am
Nice blister! Before reading the fine print, I thought it was from taking all those pictures… Glad to see that many young people turning out even during prom weekend.
April 15th, 2008 at 12:27 pm
gotta think it was a lot of fun being around that many teens…those that come to these events of their own free-will [even allowing for a little arm twisting from their friends] are usually amenable to the message.